Spoilers

“Medusa”

Setting an X-Files episode in the subway system is a solid local. I read some criticism that the subway they showed was way too clean and pristine, but I have never been in a subway before so that is something that I would not have thought about without the comment.

Scully and Doggett were here to investigate a death of a man on the train whose body had been eaten away. They received plenty of push back from the people in charge of the subway, who were not prepared to shut down the subway and cause chaos among the people who used it.

Doggett went down into the subway tunnels as Scully stayed behind to man the center. Though not mentioned, I wondered if this was because she was pregnant and she did not want to potentially expose herself to an unknown contagion. That does not feel like Scully, but it could be the underlying tone of the situation.

Transit police Lieutenant Bianco had lots of negative things to say about Scully, and it felt as if he did not want to be taking orders from a woman. I do not know if he was meant to be shown as misogynistic or just a jerk who did not want to be there, but he was back talking her and running her down to Doggett through much of the episode.

I am not sure how I felt about the end of the episode. It seemed that the mute boy came out of nowhere and the end of the medusa, the cause of the contagion, was killed so easily. It did feel too quick and did not develop it enough.

Spoilers

“Surekill”

“Salvage”

This is two fairly average X-Files episodes. “Surekill” was a little more enjoyable than “Salvage” which is not much of an episode overall.

It does feel somewhat weird hearing Scully offer up the implausible solutions that Mulder used to offer. She moves into those ideas so quickly now with Doggett as the naysayer and I am not sure that I buy the reasoning behind Scully’s new open-mindedness. Sure, she would go along with Mulder’s old theories, but she always had a foot in the real world, even when you would think that she wouldn’t.

In “Salvage,” the plot is dumb and lacks a lot of intricacy. It was odd since it involved an unstoppable metal man, much like Robert Patrick played in T2. There were a couple of scripted lines to make a reference to the movie.

In “Surekill” we got a man who had x-ray vision and could then shoot his enemies through the walls, using armor piercing bullets. Where he was able to get armor piercing bullets is beyond me. Maybe they are easier to get than I know.

The ending of “Salvage” was ridiculous and went against the entire episode leading up to it. Not that there was much to the episode prior to this ending, but it was a total crap end playing on some lackluster idea of kindness.

Neither of these are episodes that I will remember moving on. Both are disposable monster-of-the-week episodes that do little for any of the characters involved.

Spoilers

“Via Negativa”

This was yet another Agent Doggett episode in season 8 that I found very engaging and entertaining. My memory of the 8th season was that I did not enjoy any of these episodes, but on this rewatch, I have found these to be hidden gems. Most of the first eight have been pretty good to awesome, with a few exceptions.

“Via Negativa” is one of those awesome episodes. Even with a limited amount of screen time for Scully, the tone and mood of the show was not lacking and gave a wonderful backdrop for a very strong performance from Robert Patrick.

It was cool to see more from Skinner in this episode and the initial team up with Doggett and the Lone Gunmen. The use of these other X-Files characters helped ease the absence of Scully.

The story itself was not the greatest script I had seen on The X-Files, but there were so many other positives in the episode that it helped create an exciting and eerie show.

Spoilers

“Redrum”

This was a very interesting episode of the X-Files. Actor Joe Morton was the main protagonist of the episode Martin Wells, as he was in jail, arrested for the murder of his wife, something that he did not remember. He was murdered by his father-in-law as they were transferring him to a more secure location.

After dying, he awoke and it was the day before he is killed.

The episode is told backwards for the rest of the time and Martin was trying to figure out what was happening to him.

Martin was friends with John Doggett and Doggett and Scully would make appearances throughout the episode.

I found this plot very clever and intriguing. I liked everything about the episode. I saw some criticism that Morton had too much exposition during his monologues, but that did not bother me at all.

Scully and Doggett did not appear a lot in the episode, as it was definitely focused on Martin Wells. Still, I thought the use of them was well done considering the plot that they were using.

I thought this was another good-to-great episode from season 8, which I did not expect. What I expect is that I had a poor mindset about the season when it first came out because there was no Mulder. Looking at it now, these have been much better than I remember.

Spoilers

“Invocation”

This was my least favorite episode of the eighth season so far, but it was not bad, and was almost saved by the ending.

Seven year old boy Billy Underwood was snatched from a park and was missing for ten years. Strangely enough, Billy returned but had seemingly not aged one day.

The craziness of the case involved Scully and Doggett, but it felt as if Doggett had taken a step back into the asshole that he had been shown as in the early episodes of this season after apparently taking steps forward in the last couple.

The returned boy would not speak and was creeping out his father and brother. His mother was not bothered at all. The first half of the episode did not feel as if it matched up with the conclusion, but I did like the conclusion.

The kidnappers from ten years ago were discovered and arrested but Doggett discovered a grave with the skeletal remains of Billy Underwood from the time when he originally disappeared.

I don’t know if this was supposed to be a spirit of some kind returned to help his brother, who wound up kidnapped by the same men, or what. There was a scene of a knife being stabbed in Billy’s brother’s bed that does not make sense in the eventual narrative. It sure seemed as if the show was setting up the returned Billy as some sort of malevolent force.

I read on Wikipedia that this also set up an arc for John, who apparently had lost a son to a murder as well, which makes sense why he was so obsessed with this case. However, I missed it during the episode. A psychic had mentioned something about someone in the room having gone through this, but I did not think it was Doggett and I do not remember it ever being touched on the rest of the episode.

I found this uneven and shaky as an episode, but not one that I hated. It is a definite “mid” episode, though if the upcoming Doggett arc takes off, maybe this would require some readjusted thought.

Spoilers

“Roadrunners”

I have to say that so far, I have been enjoying the second watch of John Doggett in the X-Files. My memory of these episodes when they first aired was that I simply was not a fan of them because he was not Mulder. I think that I was really being a hater toward Doggett because this was an awesome episode.

It was creepy as hell. It was so good that I was able to ignore how Doggett seemingly teleported from Washington DC to Utah during a commercial break. I have no idea how he made it across country so quickly. But the fun episode allows me to ignore the little things.

And this story was one of the creepiest X-Files episodes in quite a few years.

I believe the idea was to help solidify John Doggett as a good guy, and to help the audience accept him more. There is no doubt that I have that same issues.

I enjoyed the work from Gillian Anderson as she was just awesome. I was yelling at my screen when she gave her gun away. There is no way I was giving up my gun, if I were her. Her frustration of the events which changed to utter anger was fabulous. When she was threatening the cult members and calling them SOBs, it was tremendous.

So far season eight has been more consistent than season seven. The first four episodes I liked to loved. I am hoping that this continues in this manner.

Spoilers

“All Things”

“Brand X”

As we move on through season seven of the X-Files, there were two episodes in a row that I watched tonight that I did not remember from the show’s original run, and that were both overall pretty weak.

“All Things” was written and directed by Gillian Anderson herself and, while I was hoping to love her episode, this was not very good. It was a weird, fantasy-like episode with Scully facing a love from her past and some Buddhist philosophy. I found this one pretty boring and I did not find much to it.

“Brand X” was a cigarette company killing people by accident. Some gross scenes with tobacco beetles were kind of interesting, and Mulder got exposed to the dangers of second hand smoke, quite literally. I don’t know why Skinner broke into that apartment without some kind of mask on. I mean, he knew that Mulder had been infected and that this was transmitted via the smoke. Seemed logical to wear a mask as protection.

Neither episode stood out. Both of them showed that season seven, while it had some highlights, was reaching a creative plateau for the show.

Four remaining episodes of season seven.

Spoilers

“Chimera”

We had an episode of The X-Files where Mulder and Scully spent no time together and we actually involved in different cases. Scully’s was just a stakeout that the show returned to for a few scenes, so I would assume that Gillian Anderson had something going on that required a limited film schedule at this point.

However, Scully did provide some great comedic moments in the episode with the boredom and the lewdness of what she had to watch. Mulder, on the other hand, was facing a different type of evil in a neighborhood where one would not expect it.

I did not remember much about this episode but I had things figured out fairly soon into it. At least, pieces at a time. This worked a fairly common thread for The X-Files and the pattern of the episode followed a consistent beat. Those local law enforcement agents always have some secret going on.

There were a lot of things left unanswered (of course, this is the X-Files), but the result of the case still worked well. I would have liked to know how this transformation took place or where it came from…something like that.

Nothing too bad on the episode. It is watchable. It just will. most likely, not stand out in my memory as many other X-Files episodes have done.

Spoilers

“En Ami”

I was yelling at my screen at Scully to shoot him in the head. They never listen to me when I want them to shoot him in the head. I mean, he was in her car, trespassing… she could have done it and everything would be better.

Smoking Man returned to the X-Files to lure Scully on a trip to collect a potential medical cure to cure cancer. Scully went along with him and got taken in by the con. I’m telling you, shoot him in the head.

While the combination of Gillian Anderson and William B. Davis was spectacular, I am not convinced that Scully would get taken in as easily as she did. I do not think she ever truly trusted Smokey, but she certainly was naive enough.

It was also fairly creepy to have Smoking Man looking at Scully in the way that he was. I would not have gone along with him had I been Scully. I guess she is a better person than I am.

Mulder is on the bench for much of this episode, though he does recruit the Lone Gunmen to try and help find Scully. At the end of the episode, Mulder has an almost disappointed look on his face when Scully had taken him to where CSM’s “offices” were (cleaned out, of course).

Who knows exactly how much of this entire trip was true? I am not sure whether CSM told Scully anything that was true and not part of his manipulation. Why does he do this? He just tossed the disc with the info into the water.

Scully could have avoided all of this with just one (or maybe a couple) shots to the head. When will they finally take my suggestion?

PS- I should say that I love William B. Davis’s performance as CSM, and I don’t really want him shot in the head. Just his character.